Western Harbour Tunnel fails the test

Tuesday, 13 November 2018

Inner West Council has made a detailed submission to the Government in opposition to the Western Harbour Tunnel.

With noise and vibration set to disturb residents and students alike for years, Council has strong objections to the use of Yurulbin Park at Birchgrove as a construction site and the use of the Balmain Leagues Club Site as a construction site.

Unfiltered stacks on Victoria Road and within the Rozelle Rail Yards will expel fumes from both the Tunnel and WestConnex, and local traffic will be chaotic as State Government projects converge around White Bay and Rozelle.

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said the inner west has had enough of bearing the brunt of major infrastructure projects with zero concern from the State Government about their disrupted lives.

“The State Government’s disregard for the people of the inner west knows no bounds,” he said.

“They plan to create what amounts to an open cut mine just meters from Rozelle Public School, and poison the Rozelle environment for years to come.

“There will be thousands of dangerous truck movements and clouds of dust for children and staff at the School and surrounding neighbourhoods.

“Using the Balmain Leagues Club as an extraction site will make absolutely sure that an historic Football club becomes extinct.

“The poor planning for WestConnex has left the State Government with a massive bottleneck at ANZAC Bridge, and now they resort to the multi-billion dollar Western Harbour Tunnel to fix it.”

The key Western Harbour Tunnel impacts on Balmain, Birchgrove, Lilyfield and Rozelle include:

a mid-tunnel construction dive-site at former Balmain Leagues Club site on Victoria Road;

a construction site within the Rozelle Rail Yards (RRY) site;

a construction site at Yurulbin Park at Birchgrove and within the harbour near Yurulbin Point;

use of part of the White Bay port area for spoil handling and construction/storage of the concrete tunnel sections to be laid on the Harbour floor;

harbour pollution as a result of dredging;

noise and vibration impacts on residents and buildings; and

cumulative impacts of more than 4,000 truck movements a day as a result of construction relating to the Western Harbour Tunnel, WestConnex, the Metro, and other construction projects in White Bay.

For further information, please contact Kate Walsh on 9392 5685 or kate.walsh@innerwest.nsw.gov.au